Meg Baird
Ghost Forests
Release Date: Nov 9, 2018
Genre(s): Folk
Record label: Three Lobed
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Album Review: Ghost Forests by Meg Baird
Great, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore are both California transplants from the Philly indie scene where they worked separately with Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, and Jack Rose, to name a few, as well as on Baird's Seasons on Earth in 2011. Despite being friends and crisscrossing musical paths for more than a decade, Ghost Forests marks the first time the two musicians have collaborated as a duo. The pair played together at Three Lobed's Hopscotch Festival in the mid-2010s, setting the stage for this recording.
Based on rating 7.4/10
Listen for the twangs. The little disruptions on Ghost Forests, the collaborative debut from Meg Baird of Espers and Heron Oblivion and the harpist Mary Lattimore, offer a key into its soul. On the surface, the album is gorgeous, soothing, delicate; you could soak in a bathtub while it plays. But beneath that placid surface, little explosions and rustlings abound.
Opinion: Excellent
Ghost Forests by Meg Baird and Mary Lattimore Combining electric guitar and harp requires careful calibration. The guitar is louder and rougher and more apt to fill sonic space. The harp twinkles icily and, if managed correctly, can cut through fuzz with its high timber. Yet a classical harp could just as easily be drowned in the mix, its quiet precision swamped in murky overtones.
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